The Ashley Hepperly Podcast

What if the costliest thing you could give God isn't your 4 AM alarm, your fast, or your hours of prayer?

In Part 3 of Adventures with God, I'm talking about the cost of your yes, and it's probably not what you think. Anybody can be disciplined, and discipline was never the gospel. I share why worship that makes the cross about our sacrifice is a pet peeve of mine, what business gurus with ice buckets taught me about discipline, a billboard that tested whether I'd believe the best in someone, and the guy who would do anything for me except give me his heart.

We also talk about why prayer that starts with gratitude pulls heaven into your circumstances, why facts don't equal truth, and why the little yes Jesus is asking for costs you trust, dependence, and your heart.

Scriptures: 2 Samuel 24:24, Matthew 13:44, Colossians 3:1

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

What if your calling isn’t found in the shiny, put-together parts of you, but in the parts you feel most unqualified in?

In Part 2 of Adventures with God, I talk about the lies so many of us carry: “Something is wrong with me,” “I’m not enough,” and “I’ll be ready once I get it together.” I share the day a college professor told me to give up on music, why Jesus passed over the best students to call fishermen who hadn’t caught a thing all night, and the moment the Holy Spirit showed my mom that a glued-back-together pot is exactly where His oil can flow.

We also talk about why adventures with God always include tension, why trials can become the place His anointing comes from, and a simple way to start each morning: “Thank you, Lord, that You and I are one. What are we doing today?”

If you’ve felt unqualified, not ready, or too broken to be used, Jesus is saying the same thing He said on the shore: “Follow Me.”

Scriptures: Acts 4:13, Psalm 144:1, John 3:8, Colossians 3:1

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

Have you ever felt like you keep walking around the same thing over and over, no matter how long you’ve been in church? In this episode I’m talking about how to get out of your spiritual rock bottom, what to do when you’re in what I call the crawl space, and how to move forward in the kingdom.

We look at how legalistic systems teach us to crawl our way up and earn our place with God, and why Colossians 1:13 says we’ve already been delivered from darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. I share my own crawl space season, how years of chronic illness changed my question from “why?” to “who are you for me in this?”, a story from my first trip to Disney World as a kid, and why gratitude is the biggest secret to not losing it in the crawl space.

I also take a moment to apologize, on behalf of leaders, for the ways we’ve taught people to depend on us instead of walking with the Holy Spirit for themselves. We close in prayer for anyone who’s in the crawl space right now.

If this episode encouraged you, send it to someone who needs it.

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

What's up fam, 

I once needed $23,000 in one night to cover a conference God told me to host. Then an ice storm hit, the roads shut down, and only 150 people showed up. The offering came in down to the dollar.

This is Part 1 of our Adventures With God series: God wants to have fun with you. Jesus isn't stuffy. He turned water into wine to keep a party going, nicknamed His hot-headed friends the Sons of Thunder, and cooked His disciples breakfast on the beach. And if you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father.

I talk about Zephaniah 3:17, where God spins and dances over you, the joy Jesus promised in John 15:11, the little mini-games I play with Jesus, a $255 check that showed up right when I needed it, and how I've learned to answer hate comments in the opposite spirit.

If you've been living like Christianity is homework, this one's for you.

Go deeper:
 - My free weekly letter: https://ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter

 - Rooted University, an online discipleship school. We're looking for the first 10 founding students, who lock in the lowest tuition we'll ever offer: https://ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend and subscribe so you don't miss Part 2.

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

What's up fam,

My friend Reggie is joining me on the podcast today, and we're getting raw and real about identity. So many of us have built our worth on labels: our talent, our past, our ethnicity, our productivity, or the highlight reels we scroll past every day. When those labels get shaken, everything else falls apart.

Reggie shares about growing up in a hard home and what it took to rebuild his sense of worth, plus what it felt like to wonder why he was on a worship team. I share about arriving at Lee University as "the girl who plays music," realizing everyone around me was better, and walking through a broken engagement.

We also talk about:

• Letting social media disciple you instead of the Word
• Why creators and podcasts are supplements, not the meat and potatoes
• How God uses community as a conduit for His comfort
• Friends who love you enough to tell you the hard thing (Proverbs 27:6)
• Being defined by your fruit instead of what you produce
• Church hurt, and why it wasn't God who hurt you
• Ripping off the labels you've leaned on as a crutch

Reggie closes with three simple steps: ask God to make you want to know Him, rip off the labels He shows you, and get into healthy community. You are who Jesus says you are, a son or daughter of the King.

Connect with Reggie
Instagram: @reggieflowers_
Reggie and his wife run a social media company. Reach out if you need help with your socials.
If you're near Knoxville, Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, visit City Hills Church in Knoxville, where Reggie leads worship.

If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don't miss what's next.

If you like this kind of content and want practical guides of growing closer to Jesus you can sign up for free here: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

What if you are exhausted from chasing God because He was never asking you to? My friend Grace came out to the woods of East Tennessee and we got honest about checklist Christianity, the pressure to get an A in your faith, and what changes when you realize Jesus is the one pursuing you.

Grace works on the social team at K-LOVE and helps run Good Source, their new Gen Z brand. She shares the season she had so much Christian FOMO that she took six months off church (still in community, still serving) and started meeting God on a bench at a lookout every Sunday night. I share a vision of three piles of gifts in heaven and the door that was standing in the way, plus the Chrysler story that explains why we keep scratching up our own lives. And we end up on a midnight kitchen dance floor singing into a whisk, because the joy of the Lord counts too.

If you have been trying so hard to get close to God that you are burning out, this one is for you.

IN THIS EPISODE

(0:00) Is God chasing us, or are we chasing God? (2:00) Checklist Christianity and why we burn out (3:00) Treating your faith like homework (5:30) "Come find me" (7:00) The only thing we're told to strive for (8:00) The vision of three piles and a door (9:40) Hyper-independent girl mode (12:20) You started in the Spirit (14:20) Where's Waldo with Jesus (16:10) The Chrysler belt buckle story (17:30) Christian FOMO (18:30) Six months off church and the bench at the lookout (21:00) Inviting Jesus into the bad days (22:40) Mario Kart, a whisk, and a midnight dance party (25:40) Who do you think God is for you? (27:00) Grace prays over you

SCRIPTURE MENTIONED Hebrews 4:11, Galatians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Psalm 139:8, Psalm 23, Nehemiah 8:10, Matthew 25:21

If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who needs it and leave a rating or review. It helps more people find the show.

Follow Grace and Good Source: @mygoodsource and @grace_raine

Get the Field Notes letter, free every Friday: https://ashleyhepperly.com

Rooted University, our online discipleship school for young people: https://ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ashleyhepperly

Come say hi on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ashley.hepperly

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

You already know God speaks. This one is about how He speaks to you specifically, and what to do when it feels like He has gone quiet.

In the final part of the series we break down five ways the Holy Spirit speaks: seeing, hearing, knowing, feeling, and what I call God winks. I share the night I asked God how He was going to fix my life and watched Him rearrange the letters H-O-W into W-H-O. The woman in the wheelchair I almost drove past in college. The "L2" I heard in a small church in Rocky Top and had no idea what it meant. The Rihanna song I sang in a service in Knoxville that turned out to be a man's song for going home to Jesus.

We also talk honestly about seasons of hiddenness. The honeymoon stage with Jesus is real and I love it, but the depth comes in the meaty trials, when you are leaning in close to hear a whisper instead of riding a high. If you have been asking what you did wrong because the feeling left, this part is for you.

Your homework is at the end, and it is simple. Get a journal, talk to Him like He is your best friend, and ask what season the two of you are in.

This is part four, the final part of the free How to Hear God's Voice series.

IN THIS EPISODE

(0:00) Five ways God speaks, and why this one is practical (1:00) Seasons in relationship, and the honeymoon stage with Jesus (3:00) Youth group highs and what forms you instead (5:00) The season every friend left and I moved to Nashville (6:30) "Seasons of manifestation and seasons of hiddenness" (7:40) One: seeing (8:20) H-O-W becomes W-H-O (10:40) Two: hearing (11:50) The woman in the wheelchair (15:10) Three: knowing (15:30) "L2" in a small church in Rocky Top (16:40) Words of knowledge as warnings and boundaries (17:50) The Rihanna song and the man going home (19:20) Don't use God like an ATM (20:20) Four: feeling (20:40) Shifting the atmosphere of a dollar store (22:30) Five: God winks (23:50) Rainbows, Elijah, and the still small voice (24:20) Your homework (24:50) What about false prophets? (25:40) A prayer over you

SCRIPTURE AND REFERENCES John 10:27, 1 Corinthians 12 (words of knowledge and wisdom), 2 Corinthians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 12 (caught up to the third heaven), 1 Kings 19 (the still small voice), Genesis 9 (the rainbow), Mark 8:36, and a line from Charles Spurgeon

If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who needs it and leave a rating or review. It helps more people find the show.

START ROOTED UNIVERSITY How to Hear God's Voice is the intro course inside Rooted University, our online discipleship ministry school for young people. Everything in this series, plus the teaching that comes after it.https://ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

GET THE FIELD NOTES LETTER Free every Friday. A devotion, a story from the journey, and the new episode in your inbox. https://ashleyhepperly.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE https://youtube.com/@ashleyhepperly

COME SAY HI ON INSTAGRAM https://instagram.com/ashley.hepperly

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

Have you ever wanted Jesus to teach you Himself? Not through a pastor, not through a podcast, but directly. That is what part three of How to Hear God's Voice is all about.

If you are a believer, you already have a direct line to the Father. You do not have to live off somebody else's leftovers. In this episode I share the six months God told me to quit my clients and just sit with Him, the day the Holy Spirit interrupted me while I was chopping cucumbers and told me to live like Big Mario, and the server in Pigeon Forge who wept at the table when God gave me a word for her.

We also get really practical. How to tell your own thoughts apart from the voice of the Holy Spirit. How to journal and actually listen instead of filling the silence. How to step inside the scriptures with the Holy Spirit instead of just checking a verse off your list. And what to do when your nervous system will not slow down long enough to hear anything, because that does not disqualify you.

This is part three of a free four part series on hearing God's voice.

IN THIS EPISODE

(0:00) Jesus wants to teach you Himself (0:50) Stop living off somebody else's leftovers (1:30) Israel said "Moses, you go up the mountain" (2:10) What 20 young adults told me was missing (3:20) Pedestal culture and codependent Christianity (4:30) You do not need someone else to pray for you (5:40) What is your adventure with Jesus? (6:20) The six months God told me to quit (7:20) "Holy Spirit, interrupt me" (8:20) God is just looking for a yes (9:00) Chopping cucumbers and Big Mario (11:00) Walls down with Jesus, walls down with people (12:10) The server in Pigeon Forge (13:40) Was that me or God? (15:20) The banker who can feel a counterfeit bill (15:50) Journaling and listening without editing (16:40) Monologue or dialogue (17:50) Stepping inside the scriptures with the Holy Spirit (19:50) Communion at the foot of the cross (21:30) When your nervous system will not quiet down (22:40) "God, we have a possibility" (24:00) Inside jokes with Jesus (25:10) A prayer over you

SCRIPTURE AND REFERENCES Exodus 19 and 20, Luke 14 (the parable of the great banquet), 1 Samuel 17, Psalm 23, Isaiah 53:5, Mark 14

If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who needs it and leave a rating or review. It genuinely helps other people find the show.

Get the Field Notes letter, free every Friday. A devotion, a story from the journey, and the new episode in your inbox. https://ashleyhepperly.com

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ashleyhepperly

Come say hi on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ashley.hepperly

More on Rooted University, the online discipleship school for young people: https://ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

Part 2 of How to Hear God's Voice.

Last week we talked about God's character, because that's the bedrock for everything He says. This week we're talking about His creativity. He spoke the world into existence, and He is still that creative about how He speaks to you. Sometimes it's a lullaby. Sometimes it's a drive-thru at Sonic. Sometimes it's a movie you've seen a hundred times.

We get into the éclair story, what happened at Sonic, how to invite Jesus into whatever you're already doing, and how to read the Word with your imagination.

Your practice this week: God, show yourself to me outside of the box.

If this one helped you, share it with someone and follow the show so you don't miss part 3.

Get my free weekly Field Notes letter at ashleyhepperly.com

Rooted University, my online discipleship school for young people: ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly

God never stopped talking. Most of us are just tuned to the wrong station.

In part one of this four part series, recorded live at a coffee shop in the mountains of East Tennessee, I'm teaching you how to tune into the frequency heaven is already speaking on. We get into failure mode versus abiding mode, why gratitude changes what you can hear, and the three shifts that set you up to hear God's voice: knowing His nature, talking to yourself the way the Father talks to you, and refusing to keep conversations going with your old dead self.

This series is month one of Rooted University, and I'm giving it away free. New parts drop every Tuesday.

Get my weekly Field Notes letter: https://ashleyhepperly.com/
Learn more about Rooted University: https://ashleyhepperly.com/rooted-university

Get my weekly letter: ashleyhepperly.com/newsletter
Become a monthly partner with Rooted Collective: ashleyhepperly.com/give
Follow along on Instagram: @ashley.hepperly